¥■= AMHERST GIRL 



OF 



Y« OLDEN TYME 



BY 



ALICE M. WALKER 



COVER DESIGN 

BY 

MISS MARTHA GENUNG 



AMHERST MASS. 
1901 



r^^ 



Gift 
Publisher 

f7 Ja'06 



Y" Amherst Girl of Y" Olden Tyme 



THE history of a town should be known to each of 
its citizens, for one cannot appreciate the privileges 
of the present age without some understanding of the 
causes which have produced these conditions. 

Scattered throughout the length and breadth of our 
land, we meet, here and there, real " Daughters of the 
Revolution,"' whose memories extend backw'ard to the 
time of the thirteen states, and who have heard from the 
lips of father and grandfather personal recollections of 
the w^ar for independence. They tell us of a time when 
the dispute as to the beginning of the nineteenth century 
had scarcely been settled, and the Congress of the new- 
country, with Jefferson at its head, was moving from 
Philadelphia into the wilderness, to a site on the Potomac, 
selected by Washington, and named by him " Federal 
City." The American navy was just coming into exist- 
ence, and officers and seamen were performing deeds of 
daring before Tripoli, which have never been forgotten. 
Down the Ohio in great flat-boats floated emigrants from 
the east, and there, in that interior country, they lived in 



^ Ye Amherst Girl 

the rudest manner possible, their settlements constituting 
the " West " of that early day. The extreme western 
line of the United States was the Mississippi river, but 
the unbroken prairies and forests of that unknown region 
seemed to New England boys and girls about as far 
away as the interior of Alaska does to the present 
generation. 

Beyond the sea, in France, one hundred years ago, the 
great Napoleon was exhibiting the trophies of his Egyp- 
tian expedition, and all Paris was wild with enthusiasm. 
In striking contrast to the glittering pomp and show of 
that gorgeous spectacle, streamers of somber crape were 
fluttering from flags and standards ; across the English 
Channel, too, banners at half-mast indicated that another 
great nation was in mourning. A plain Virginian gen- 
tleman, George Washington by name, had died at Mount 
Vernon, and the world honored his memory and sor- 
rowed at his loss. 

The people of those early days, having neither railroad 
nor steamboat, travelled by sailing packets, the duration 
of all voyages being dependent upon the wind. By land, 
they rode in coaches, taking six days to go from 
New York to Boston ; sometimes two persons travelled 
with one horse, according to the method called " Ride 
and Tie," by which one rode a distance, then tied the 
horse and walked on, leaving the other a chance to ride 
in his turn. Pack horses and heavy wagons carried all 



Of Ye Olden Tyme 5 

the freight that went by land, and boats pushed with 
poles and loaded with provisions and baggage moved 
slowly up or down the rivers. 

These customs, with many others as novel in their 
way, prevailed at the beginning of the century, when the 
oldest persons now living were yet too young to under- 
stand them. The country had but recently buried many 
heroes of the Revolution, and the spirit of the fathers 
had descended in four-fold measure upon their children, 
as, with a heroism worthy of their sires, they compelled 
the stony hillsides of New England to furnish them a 
livelihood. "The Sword of Bunker Hill" hung full in 
view above the farmer's fireplace, a constant inspiration 
and reminder to him and to his family. The soldier had 
become a man of peace, and how to make a living from 
the farm was the problem staring him in the face. 

Throughout our fertile valley, his difficulties in respect 
to soil were less than in many other parts of New Eng- 
land, but here, as everywhere, the forest was his foe. 
With hand tools, clumsy and blunted, the Hampshire 
county farmer ruthlessly destroyed the fine old oaks and 
elms, leaving now and then one to stand alone, a living 
witness to the beauty and majesty of its doomed com- 
panions. We pass these ancient landmarks to-day with- 
out a thought as to the tales their whispering leaves could 
tell us, could we only understand their language. They 
murmur to each other of the days when this old state 



6 Ye Amherst Girl 

itself was young, and our town was only just considered 
of sufficient importance to have a name of its own, for 
until that time it had been called Hadley East Precinct, 
or sometimes Hadley Farms. 

The meaning of the word Amherst is "edgewood," or 
the " border of a wood." When we realize that in those 
days the mountain ranges were wooded to their very 
summits and all about the settlement were innumerable 
trees, we feel the full significance of the name which 
Thomas Pownall, Governor General of the Province, 
gave to the little hamlet in honor of his distinguished 
friend, Lord Amherst, hero of Louisburg and conqueror 
of Canada, whose portrait hangs in our public library, 
and a sketch of whose life may be found in the history of 
the town. 

Let us imagine a traveller on horseback riding into 
this new town of Amherst at the beginning of the 19th 
century. The same blue skies were overhead, but the 
old sun, which shines to-day, illumined a very different 
scene from the one spread out before the admiring gaze 
of strangers of the present generation. Upon the site 
now occupied by the Amherst House, the traveller saw a 
yellow two-story structure, with many small-paned win- 
dows. From a stout post in front was suspended the old 
wooden sign, now annually displayed at the county fair. 
This building was the Boltwood tavern, one of the best 



Of Ye Olden Tyme 7 

known inns in Western Massachusetts ; and on the old 
sign one might read the words : 

AMHERST HOTEL, 

E. BoLTWOOD, 

and behold the picture of a fearful-looking creature, like 
no animal on earth, but probably meant to represent a 
lion. 

Such tavern signs were often adorned with lines of 
poetry. A Boston inn had the picture of a nondescript 
vessel with the inscription : 

"SHIP IN DISTRESS. 
With sorrows I am compassed round. 
Pray lend a hand, my ship's aground." 

Another sign bore the following : 

" This is the bird that never flew, 
This is the tree that never grew, 
This is the ship that never sails, 
This is the can that never fails." 

No poetry, however, appeared on the sign of the Bolt- 
wood tavern, though the can that " never failed " could 
be found inside at the bar. These taverns of New Eng- 
land have been a fertile source of material for the romance 
writer. They were the centres of social life at home, as 
well as gateways to the outside world. For many years 
the Boltwood tavern ranked high among the inns in this 



8 Ye Amherst Girl 

part of the state, and its old registers bore tlie names of 
men of national and international fame. 

Standing near this famous house, the stranger looked 
about him with curious eyes. Before him, running north 
and south, lay the Pleasant street of to-day, with Main 
street cutting it at right angles and taking the general 
direction east and west. These two streets were forty 
rods wide, or twice as wide as the elm shaded road of 
old Hadley. Thus the houses were built facing a broad 
open lot, a part of which is the common of to-day. 

Nearly opposite the Boltwood tavern stood the Strong 
house, built in 1744, and thus fifty-six years old when 
Amherst was in its infancy. We notice with interest the 
deep yard and magnificent trees in front of this old dwell- 
ing, which stands substantially the same as it did a 
hundred and fifty years ago. This yard, and the one 
belonging to Miss Cowles on North Pleasant street, show 
the width of these old highways, laid out when the town 
contained but twenty-five dwelling-houses and land was 
cheap and abundant. Three of these houses at the 
beginning of the century had the aristocratic, gambrel 
roof, and the old Strong house is the only remaining 
specimen of the kind. A pear tree behind this venerable 
mansion is said to have been planted by Judge Strong, 
and is therefore one hundred and fifty years old. 

A general country store, the only one in town, stood 
on the corner opposite the tavern, where could be bought 



Of Ye Olden Tyme ^ 

all the necessaries of life not raised upon the farm ; for, 
it must be remembered, all the inhabitants of Amherst 
at that time were farmers, and the village, as yet, was 
unthought of. A quiet place it was in which those early 
Amherst people dwelt. The trees were full of singing 
birds, and at night the cries of wild animals could be 
heard on the mountain sides. But no yells of students, 
no ringing of bicycle bells, nor whizz of trolley, nor loco- 
motive whistle broke the silence. On the other hand, 
some sounds were heard which would be novel to our 
ears. Upon the common, which was partly a swamp and 
partly a ston)'^ and uneven pasture, the farmers' cows 
wandered at their will, and the clangor of their bells 
struck harshly on the ear, mingled with the creaking of 
the old wooden pump in front of the tavern, which fur- 
nished water for its distinguished guests. 

On the east side of the common, clumps of alders 
grew beside a goose pond, on whose stagnant surface 
floated large flocks of geese, pursuing their squawking 
way by day and resting at night near the residence of their 
owners. The youthful swain, returning from his court- 
ing late at night through the crooked, unlighted streets, 
no doubt sometimes encountered these noisy watchmen, 
who, in their alarm, betrayed at once the intruder and 
the lateness of the hour. A pond of that description in 
the center of the town we should not consider orna- 
mental. But the accommodation of the goose was 



10 Ye Amherst Girl 

important to those early settlers, as the selling of feathers 
was a source of great profit and the feather bed was a 
necessity of life. There was, besides, little time for 
landscape gardening, and the Village Improvement 
Society had not yet been organized. The worthy fathers 
and mothers in Israel plodded slowly past goose pond 
and pasture and swamp, down a street as crooked as the 
rail fence which skirted its eastern border, in rainy sea- 
sons muddy to an untold depth. Oftentimes finding it 
impossible to pick their way where sidewalks were 
unknown, they climbed painfully along the fence, thank- 
ful that their clothes were of stout homespun and their 
home-made leather shoes impervious to water. 

We somehow have an idea that only old people lived 
in olden times, and do not realize that in the twenty-five 
dwellings which made up the town, only a few of which 
remain to-day, boys and girls were growing up and going 
to school, and enjoying themselves as only boys and 
girls can. Most of them became the ancestors of the 
present inhabitants of Amherst. In many families are 
handed down heir-looms which belonged to them, — great- 
grandmother's china, or bedquilts, or old mahogany table 
or high-backed arm-chair, or perhaps her gold beads and 
her wedding dress. 

We have gained some idea as to what sort of a town 
was the home of this grandmother of ours whose memory 
we cherish, and next we cannot fail to ask. How did she 



Of Ye Olden Tyme ii 

live ? Who were her friends ? Where did she go to 
church and where to school ? What sort of training did 
she have in those days, when high schools and colleges 
for girls were unknown ? How did she look and dress 
and talk ? 

A careful search into the history of the town and of 
the valley has produced answers to some of the questions 
as regards the individual girl, and other authorities tell 
us about the habits and customs which, prevailing 
throughout the state, must have been common here. 

A girl in old New England from the day of her birth 
had a hard struggle for life. Regardless of cold or 
storm, the Sunday following she was carried to church to 
be baptized, and there ofttimes, a long, unmusical name 
was given her. Old-fashioned names have lately become 
the fashion, but we do not often hear to-day of girls 
being christened Prudence, Experience, Waitstill, Thank- 
ful, Desire, Supply, Submit and Unite. Wishing to 
accustom her baby girl to hardships early in life, the 
Puritan mother clothed her in the thinnest of linen gar- 
ments, rocked her in a clumsy wooden cradle, and dosed 
her with all sorts of terrible home-made mixtures. " Snail 
water" was a favorite remedy. A large spoonful of 
sulphur and molasses every morning before breakfast 
was considered to be good for her blood. 

The country doctor in those days could exhibit no col- 
lege diploma, and had acquired no hospital practice. 



12 Ye Amherst Girl 

He had simply taken care of the horse of an old estab- 
lished practitioner, run errands, pounded drugs and 
acted as driver, until he had absorbed enough medical 
wisdom to set out for himself. Should any of the family 
really be sick, this wise physician would come riding up, 
and spread before the sufferer a display of surgical 
instruments calculated to frighten a grown person out of 
his wits. The doctor earned his fee in those days, and 
the calomel and physic he administered were wont to kill 
or cure. He was also a dentist and twisted out teeth 
with great iron turn-keys after the most approved fash- 
ion. He even made false teeth from the tusks of the 
hippopotamus. George Washington procured a set of 
that kind just before he died, which, it was said, greatly 
improved his personal appearance. An advertisement 
in a Boston paper in 1795 was headed: "Live Teeth. 
A generous price paid for human front teeth perfectly 
sound, by Dr. Skinner." These teeth were to be set in 
other and vainer persons' mouths. 

A remedy called "sage wine" was supposed to be 
especially efficacious in treating " a cold stomach," a 
curious disease from which our forefathers often suffered. 
Of this medicine an old writer says, " It will cure all 
aches and humours in the joints, and dry rheums, and 
keep off all diseases to the fourth degree. It helps the 
dead palsy, and prevents convulsions. It sharpens the 
memory, and from the beginning of taking, will keep the 



Of Ye Olden Tyme /j 

body mild and sane, and strengthen Nature until the 
fulness of your day be finished. Nothing will be changed 
in your strength except the change of hair. It will keep 
your teeth sound, and prevent swelling of the joints or 
body." 

The "rain-water doctor" worked wondrous cures upon 
credulous invalids until, we are told, he was drowned in 
a hogshead of his own medicine at his own door. A "tar 
water" craze lived long among the country folk and died a 
lingering death. Smallpox was a disease much dreaded, 
and generally fatal, and before the system of vaccination 
was perfectly understood, parties were made up to go to 
the hospital together and have the smallpox. In 1784 
advertisements might be seen in papers that, at different 
hospitals, "Classes will be admitted for smallpox," just 
as we read to-day of classes in music and drawing. If 
the old time Amherst girl desired to escape probable 
disfigurement and perhaps death, should she be exposed 
to the disease, she would have to leave town for her 
smallpox party, as such festivities were not held here. 
But generally she was strong and well, with an appetite 
for breakfast wholly unlike that of the modern society 
young lady. 

Upon the farmer's table in those days could be found 
an abundance of plain, well cooked food, of which it was 
the fashion to partake heartily three times a day. The 
kitchen in old New England was the centre of the farm- 



i/f. Ye Amhe7-st Gud 

er's family, and here, by the aid of the great brick oven, 
and the coals in the open fire-place, the housewife baked 
and roasted and broiled such viands as we seldom taste 
to-day, seasoned as they were by that most appetizing of 
all sauces, hunger. Salt pork, baked beans, and Indian 
pudding, rye and Indian bread, parched corn and hoe 
cake, beef and mutton raised upon the farm, and game 
shot in the woods, were served up daily to the farmer's 
family. Cider was the common drink and was used 
freely by all the children until 1825, when the need of 
reform became so evident that the farmers cut down 
whole orchards of thriving apple trees, ignoring the pos- 
sibility of using the fruit for food instead of drink. Long 
before this dried leaves from China, called tea, were 
introduced, boiled until bitter, drunk without milk or 
sugar, even the grounds being buttered, salted and eaten. 
At a Sunday dinner in the house of John Adams in 1817, 
the first course consisted of Indian meal pudding and 
molasses, in the opinion of the guests " a very dainty 
dish." 

It is supposed that by this time Amherst people were 
eating potatoes properly cooked, though it had taken 
years of endeavor to learn to like them. No wonder; for 
in 1700 in New England potatoes were boiled, seasoned 
with nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper, mixed with dates, lemon 
and mace, covered with butter, sugar and grape juice, 
iced with rose water and sugar, and called a " secret 



Of Ye Olden Time is 

pye." It does not seem strange that they were not popular 
at first. 

Besides the articles above mentioned, the finest of 
shad from the Connecticut river might often be seen 
upon the farmer's table, his pride being sufficiently over- 
come to allow him to eat it. In Colonial times, when 
plenty of salt pork was considered to be a proof of 
wealth, the Connecticut valley settler would not take 
advantage of the riches which the river brought to his 
very door, lest eating shad should imply a deficiency of 
pork. A story is told of a Hadley family before the 
Revolution about to dine upon shad, who, hearing a 
knock at the door, immediately hid the platter of fish 
under the bed, lest its poverty be noised abroad. It was 
not until a comparatively late day that the excellence and 
abundance of the fish overcame this foolish idea, and the 
farmers of Amherst, with others up and down the valley, 
mounted their horses and rode to the fishing place at 
Hockanum, coming back with loads of what is considered 
to be one of the greatest delicacies of our modern menus. 

Our girl was perhaps the eldest daughter of a large 
family, for in those days large families were fashionable, 
seventeen and even twenty children having been known 
to belong to one father and mother. At an early age, 
she attended a cooking school in her mother's kitchen, 
and practiced her lessons by the light of a tallow candle, 
which she had previously helped to manufacture. Should 



1 6 Ye AmJie7'st Girl 

her mother have too many girls and some good neighbor 
not have any, she transferred her service to the house of 
the neighbor, and no disgrace was attached to the idea 
of " working out." Housework was honorable in Puritan 
households and to be a good housekeeper was the ambition 
of every feminine heart. The farmer's daughter also took 
" Physical Culture " as a part of her home course. She 
could wield the heavy old birch brooms and beat and turn 
those voluminous feather beds with energy and grace. 
The dasher of the big wooden churn in her vigorous 
hands flew up and down with a will, and the balls of 
golden butter took form and comeliness beneath her 
skillful touch. She could go out in the field, catch 
the old mare, and ride her bareback over steep and 
stony college hill with the bag of grain or wheat to be 
ground, as well as could any of her brothers. She helped 
her mother, also, in the picking of those geese before 
mentioned. 

But though the farmer's daughter early learned to take 
much pride in the successful accomplishment of these 
prosaic household tasks, yet for art she also had what 
was then called " a pretty fancy." She loved fine knit- 
ting, and produced many curious and elaborate stitches, 
the "herringbone" and " fox and geese" being favor- 
ites. It is recorded that one clever Shelburne damsel 
could knit the alphabet and a verse of poetry into one 
pair of mittens. Marvellous are the patterns of the 



Of Ye Olden Tynie 17 

patchwork quilts which have come down to us, and 
which we keep in memory of our revered ancestor who 
invented them. We look with wonder upon the tiny 
stitches in those Hnen sheets which grandma wove and 
spun and hemmed, when she was a girl, and upon the 
fine embroidery on that old fichu, so carefully preserved. 
In making paper and hair flowers and painting upon 
velvet and in other lost arts of the kind, the old time 
Amherst girl was in no way behind the girls of other 
towns, and again, as in the department of domestic 
economy, her mother was her teacher. 

The kind of clothes she wore we know something 
about from those which are brought out sometimes to 
wear at old folk's concerts, and Martha Washington tea 
parties. During the autumn a dye tub was placed in the 
chimney corner, and, covered with a board, formed a 
cozy seat. Sometimes, as the hours dragged slowly after 
the family had retired, it became the '' anxious seat " of 
the lover, the object of his addresses sitting demurely in 
the opposite corner. Perhaps the family did not retire ; 
then the unfortunate pair were forced to use a " courting 
stick," a hollow tube, six or eight feet long, fitted with 
mouth and ear pieces. In this manner, telephonic love- 
making could be carried on in the presence of a crowd, 
and no one would be the wiser. One of these courting 
sticks, used in the vicinity, is said to be still preserved in 
Longmeadow, a proof that this queer custom really 



iS Ye Amherst Girl 

existed in the Connecticut valley. The difficulties attend- 
ing courtship had no effect upon the early marriages 
which prevailed, most girls being married soon after their 
sixeenth year. Should one fail of marriage, at a very 
early age she would be called an old maid. We read of 
one " Antient Maid " of twenty-five years, and at thirty 
they called her a " Thornback." 

But all this time we have left our damsel sitting in the 
chimney corner, while her lover toasts his shins on the 
tub of blue dye opposite. This dye was used to color the 
yarn for stockings and cloth of all kinds, and the " linsey 
woolsey " made by the farmer's wife and daughters. 
The village dressmaker travelled from house to house, 
cutting and fitting garments from this cloth for the women 
of the family, and the tailor did the same for men and 
boys, both making their tongues fly as fast as their shears 
and fingers. The shoemaker also, on his periodical 
visits, from the home-cured hide of the family cow made 
boots and shoes for all, which were extremely useful, if 
not exactly ornamental. 

Fashion books were unknown at the beginning of the 
century ; but the city dressmaker imported little dolls 
from England, which she exhibited in her windows, 
dressed in miniature costumes of latest style. The modes 
of hair-dressing were wonderful, and at an earlier date 
wigs were worn by very fashionable people. A New 
England country maiden, visiting Boston for the first 



Of Ye Olden Tyme ig 

time, wrote home to her mother as follows : " Now mama, 
what do you think I am going to ask for ? A wig. I 
must either cut my hair or have one. I cannot dress it 
at all stylish. How much time it will save in one year 1 
We could save it in hairpins and paper, and besides, the 
trouble." Extravagance prevailed among wealthy people, 
and, as was natural, the poorer classes tried to make up 
in show what they lacked in money. In Colonial days, 
the law attempted to regulate matters of dress as well as 
religion. The wearing of silk by common people was a 
special offense, and we find that one young miss, Hannah 
Lyman by name, of Northampton, was prosecuted for 
" wearing silk in a flaunting manner, in an offensive way 
and garb, not only before, but also when she stood pre- 
sented in court." 

We can easily picture youthful Hannah, dressed in her 
fine silk gown, standing before the lawyers, inwardly 
rejoicing at the unusual opportunity of displaying her 
rich attire thus in public. The subject of sleeves was 
also one of great importance. The law allowed them to 
be slashed but once, and to be but "half an ell wide," 
and short sleeves, by which "the nakedness of the arms 
was displayed " were prohibited. However we find no 
record that any Amherst girl was arrested for wearing 
too fine clothes, and it is not at all probable that she 
dressed her hair in the fashion which inspired the poem 
entitled " The Artifices of Handsomeness," in which a 
Revolutionary soldier wrote : 



20 Ye Amherst Girl 

" Ladies, you had better leave off your high rolls, 
Lest by extravagance you lose your poor souls, 
Then haul out the wool and likewise the tow, 
'Twill clothe our whole army, I very well know." 

In Colonial days schooling for girls was not considered 
of much importance, but Amherst has always been liberal 
and progressive, and at the beginning of the present 
century, about eight schoolhouses might have been 
found in different sections of the town. The girl who 
lived here in the center went to the schoolhouse which 
was the only building between the Boltwood tavern and 
college hill, and was a type of all the rest. This build- 
ing, on the muddy crooked street, consisted of four walls, 
with doors and windows, built at the least possible 
expense. Around three sides extended desks, in front of 
which were rows of wooden benches, and on these, with 
dangling feet, the young Puritan struggled with tasks 
seldom required to-day of advanced college students. 
The modern text-book with its large print and beautiful 
pictures, designed to make the path to wisdom broad and 
easy, was then unknown. From Gibbon's Decline and 
Fall, which served as a reader, to those old works on 
Mathematics, fitted to puzzle a modern professor, all was 
hard, knotty and obscure. And yet, from out the dis- 
trict school, that place of trial and discomfort, what 
splendid powers of intellect and will came forth, what 
abundance of mental and moral energy issued, producing 



Of Ye Olden Tynie 21 

for the world that type of character upon which rests the 
structure of our civilization ! 

Books of any kind at that time, especially books for 
the young, were rare and expensive. We are told that 
the Farmer's Almanac was to the entire family "guide, 
councillor and friend, a magazine, cyclopedia and jest 
book." Upon the blank borders of its pages the owner 
is said to have kept " an account of his purchases, of the 
amount of liquor he drank, of the births and deaths in 
his family, of the number of his lottery tickets." Novels 
were thought to be very wicked, and unfit for young 
people to read. However, just before 1800 appeared 
some innocent volumes entitled "Original Love Letters," 
" Fifteen Comforts of Matrimony," " The Elopement," 
"Six Dialogues of Young Misses Relating to Matrimony." 
These must have been intended for youthful maidens, 
for at tlie same time Boston ladies of mature age were 
reading novels entitled " The Power of Sympathy, or The 
Triumph of Nature," and " The Helpless Orphan, or the 
Innocent Victim of Revenge," works, if we may judge 
from their titles, manifestly unfit for guileless youth of 
either sex. Scribbling on the title-page and blank leaves 
of the precious volumes was a habit even of that age, 
which an examination of certain hymn-books of to-day 
might prove to have been handed down to the third and 
fourth generations. We are sure no demure Amherst 



22 Ye Amherst Girl 

damsel, however strong her belief in the devil, ever wrote 
the sentiment found in one old volume : 

" If you dare to steal this book. 

The devil will catch you on his hook," 

illustrated by a picture of a grotesque figure with pitch- 
fork and enormous gridiron. 

Out from among the trees on college hill, before a 
thought of the college had entered the minds of the 
people, peeped the one ugly white meeting-house in 
which the citizens of the whole town worshipped the 
Lord after the good old Puritan fashion. This was the 
'' second meeting house," with a belfry and a porch and a 
lightning rod, and even a bell which at nine of the clock 
at night struck its warning to all young people that it 
was time for them to be in bed. 

At the north end, high upon the wall, on a level with 
the galleries, hung the pulpit, and over it a sounding- 
board, against which the preacher's forceful words 
rebounded, and fell like cannon balls upon the heads of 
his congregation. In front of the pulpit, on the deacons' 
seat, a row of sober-faced deacons faced the audience. 
The boys in the gallery on the right and the girls on th.e 
left played quiet pranks among themselves, with one eye 
ever on the tithing man, who with his long rod moved 
stealthily among them, in a vain endeavor to keep them 
quiet during the two or three hours of preaching and one 
hour of prayer which was considered the proper propor- 



Of Ye Oldeii Tyme 2J 

tion. From the gallery opposite the pulpit, for many 
years without the help of any instrument, the choir sang 
from " Watts' Select Hymns," until in 1839 ^ double bass 
viol was procured and a more modern hymn-book sub- 
stituted. Such innovations were looked upon with sus- 
picion by many, but protest was in vain, for then, as now, 
the young and frivolous would have their way. 

The weekly singing school, to which all singers were 
invited, was the delight of the girls and boys as well, 
who loved to sing and who easily mastered all the 
changes of key and difficult music notation taught by the 
"singing teacher." How vigorously he beat the time 
with head and hand and foot, as he sang with both 
spirit and understanding, and how the untrained voices 
rang out in those old hymns, which are the same 
yesterday, to-day and forever! Besides the hymns and 
anthems, at that old singing school they sang the Round, 
the Glee and the Madrigal, and many a simple melody, 
now almost forgotten. Irish, English and Scotch ballads 
were favorities with all, and were sung long before the 
writers of American songs were born. These were the 
popular songs when our grandmothers were young, and 
many of us have heard the dear old lady sing them. In 
their simplicity and sweetness they appeal to our hearts 
with a tender suggestion of old time fashion and fancy, 
a vision of the simple life and homely ways of long ago. 

Besides the singing school, for recreation our girl and 



2 4 Ye Amherst Girl 

her companions went to apple parings and husking bees, 
where red ears were always plentiful. She skated on the 
river, for in those days ice came to stay all winter, and 
though her clumsy skates would seem odd enough to-day, 
they answered her purpose very well. She had a good 
time, we may be sure, or she would not have lived out 
half her long and useful life. 

In 1812, perhaps, she took her first journey. With 
crack of whip and blowing of horn, up to the Boltwood 
tavern rolled the heavy stage coach, bound from Albany 
to Boston. The little hair trunk, studded thickly with 
brass-headed nails, was slung with the other baggage up 
behind. The mail was stowed away, for this was the 
"fast mail coach,'' and the jubilant damsel put in charge 
of a dignified gentleman, also on his way to Boston, and 
away they rolled, down to the old Bay Road. 

We wonder if her bright eyes, peering beneath the 
shadow of the broad-brimmed hat she wore, took in the 
beauties of the scene before her; if she thought of the 
Indian, whose widened trail the white man had made his 
chief thoroughfare ; of Braddock's defeated troops, who, 
on their way along this very road to Boston, stopped to 
water their horses where the three little mountain streams 
come together. The ledges of Bare Mountain, and the 
heavily wooded slopes of green Norwottuck, stood, as 
they stand to-day, sentinels above the historic highway; 
their rocky walls were, in less than a twelvemonth, to 



Of Ye Olden Tyme 25 

re-echo to the rumble of cannon and of wagons conveying 
supplies for Commodore Perry's fleet on Lake Erie, 
which were dragged over this same Bay Road. We can 
only guess the thoughts which passed through the mind 
of the young Puritan maiden, as she sat by the side of 
one, for many years a resident of our town, in whose 
spelling book long words were soon to perplex the 
inmates of the district school, and whose dictionary is 
known all over the world. That Noah Webster lived in 
Amherst, perhaps we all have heard, but we can hardly 
realize how he walked about these very streets, and for 
ten years carried on his life work in his house in Phoenix 
Row, burned many years ago ; how with his own hands 
he gathered in the hay, his daughters raking after ; and 
how the very trees in a well known orchard were planted 
by him, whose residence in the town is always alluded to 
with pride and satisfaction. 

Well might the farmer's daughter be proud to sit by 
his side during one of his frequent visits to the great 
metropolis of the state. We wish she had left her diary 
for us to read, giving her experiences during this wonder- 
ful visit, for we know she kept a diary ; all girls did in 
those days. No doubt she heard of the strange boat, 
running by steam upon the Hudson River ; but it was not 
wholly a novel idea to her, for her father could tell her 
that a boat propelled by steam ran on our own Connecti- 
cut back in 1793, and dreadful work it made, wheezing 



26 Ye Amherst Girl 

and churning along through the water. In 1828 the 
side-wheel steamer Barnet, built in Springfield, puffed its 
way along on its journey to Barnet, Vermont. From all 
the neighboring towns, on horseback and on foot, the 
people flocked to see the wondrous sight, and we would 
doubtless be almost as much surprised at a similar 
appearance to-day, though we might not think, as did our 
forefathers, that the smoke pouring from its chimney 
proved the strange craft to be a near relation to the devil. 
But this new kind of boat was only one of the great 
inventions of that marvellous age, and Amherst too was 
changing fast. The learned men who dwelt within its 
borders desired a better education for their children 
than was given in the old district school ; and therefore 
the girl who was born with the century could, at the age 
of fourteen, attend the Amherst academy, a three- 
story brick building located where the Amity street 
school building now stands, the second institution 
devoted to classical education in Hampshire county. For 
ten years this academy flourished, attracting pupils from 
every part of New England, though more than half the 
number were residents of the town. 

Among the girls, one, a woman in stature, plain and 
awkward in appearance, commenced with Arithmetic and 
Grammar, and while she studied, conceived a plan, 
which afterward materialized on the other side of Hol- 
yoke Mountains. As a result of the training which Mary 



Of Ye Olden Tyme 2j 

Lyon received in Amherst academy, came Mount 
Holyoke college. 

We can hardly realize that when the first idea of 
Amherst college entered the minds of men who saw far 
into the future history of the town, and were anxious for 
its welfare, the fund then started was called the " charity 
fund," " five-sixths of the interest of which shall be appro- 
priated to the education of indigent, pious young men 
for the ministry;" and yet Professor Tyler assures us in 
those very words that such was the fact. 

Our Amherst girl was grown and married, or had 
become one of those old maids of twenty-five, when 
plodding along the road leading to the village, a strange 
procession might have been seen. Ox teams, laden with 
building materials of all kinds, with lime and sand and 
lumber, driven by farmers from the ends of the town, 
from Leverett and Shutesbury and Belchertown, hastened 
to college hill, and deposited their burdens among the 
trees. Pelham contributed great blocks of stone, a firm 
foundation upon which to build, and all was a gift, with- 
out money and without price. The farmers turned out 
in force, and camped in tents upon the hill, and labored 
like the Jews building their temple. They plowed, and 
scraped and levelled, and dug the trenches for the found- 
ations, and amid scenes of excitement such as the quiet 
town had never before witnessed, the brick dormitory 
which to-day we call South College, one hundred feet 



2 8 Ye Amherst Girl 

long, thirty feet wide, and four stories high, rose solidly 
above the cornerstone of Pelham granite, on which it has 
rested securely for over eighty years. 

With untiring zeal and unparalleled faith the building 
committee prosecuted the work. No funds were fur- 
nished, only materials and provisions; and repeatedly 
these were exhausted. Once, having deposited the last 
load of mortar upon the scaffold, with not a particle of 
lime remaining, the laborers were about to leave. Sud- 
denly, just at night fall, a strange team was perceived, 
coming from the woods to the north. What was the 
astonishment of the workmen to find that a stranger who 
knew of the work, but was ignorant of their need, had 
sent a load of lime twenty-five miles just in time to meet 
the emergency. Ninety days from the laying of the cor- 
ner stone the roof was placed upon the building. By 
the same self-denying labor the college well, which has 
been to so many a source of pleasure and refreshment, 
was dug. All this is proudly recalled to-day, as annually, 
at commencement, the students sing in their Memory 
Hymn to Old Amherst, 

" Here, in toil and stress of trial, 
Here in sturdy self-denial, 

Wrought, to found these hoary walls. 
Men whose lifelong consecration, 
Rich in sacred inspiration, 

Us to high endeavor calls, 

Ay, to largest manhood calls." 



Of Ye Olden Tyme zg 

And so this "charity institution," designed, in the 
words of Rev. Daniel A. Clark, who preached the sermon 
at the laying of the corner stone, " to bestow gratis a lib- 
eral education upon those who will enter the Gospel 
ministry, but who are too indigent to defray the expenses 
of their own education," was erected. The title of this 
sermon was " A plea for a miserable world." 

On September 19, 182 1, the first class gathered for col- 
lege exercises. The students paid from a dollar to a 
dollar and a quarter per week for board, for washing twelve 
to twenty cents. They took care of their own rooms, 
and sawed their own wood. Each spring they had 
*' chip day," when they turned out to scrape and clear 
up the ground near the buildings. 

The collegian at this time, being a novelty in the vil- 
lage, was a great favorite with the farmer's family, who 
considered his society a pleasure. He received many 
favors from those who felt that to help a college student 
was one way of lending to the Lord. In the orchards 
the finest of apples and peaches grew in abundance, and 
chestnuts and walnuts dropped at his feet from the trees 
in the college grounds. All was free to the "indigent 
young man," and unlimited cider awaited him at every 
cidermill to encourage him in the pursuit of knowledge. 

In sermons of that time, Amherst was called " a city 
set on a hill," but it might better have been called a vil- 
lage in the woods. In spite of determined effort to 



JO Ye Amherst Girl 

destroy them, Dr. Tyler says, " Primal forests touched 
the rear of the college buildings, they filled up with a sea 
of waving branches the great interval between the college 
and Hadley ; toward the south they prevailed gloriously, 
sending their green waves toward the base and up the 
sides of Mt. Holyoke. To the east they overspread the 
Pelham slope, and they fairly inundated the vast tracts 
northward clear away to the lofty hills of Sunderland and 
Deerfield. It was a sublime deluge which, alas, has only 
too much subsided in our day." 

The Amherst girl of olden time lies now in that 
crowded cemetery, where every year the members of the 
G, A. R. decorate the graves of her brothers and friends 
who fell in the struggle for independence, or in that 
lovely spot on the hillside called " Wildwood." For, 
though she may have lived in other sections, or in foreign 
lands, her dying thoughts turned with longing toward 
her native valley, and her last wish was to be buried in 
the home of her childhood. Her spirit lingers about 
these ancient houses, and whispers to us in the murmur- 
ing tones of the old elm trees. With her own hands she 
fed and housed those " indigent young men " who first 
attended Amherst college. Her thirst for education, 
descending to her sons, established the high school, and 
to-day sends the many daughters of our town to crowd 
the colleges of the surrounding country. It is ours to 
imitate her virtues, and to make the most of our advan- 



Of Ye Oldeii Tyme ji 

tages, so wonderful in proportion to the few which she 
enjoyed, and the results of which caused a writer of the 
past to say to his friend, who was seeking a wife : 

" And then such housewives as these Yankees make ; 

What can't they do ? Bread, pudding, pastry, cake. 

Biscuit and buns can they mould, roll and bake. 

All they o'ersee, their babes, their singing birds, 

Parlor and kitchen, company and curds, 

Daughters and dairy, linen and the lunch 

For outdoor laborers instead of punch. 

The balls of butter, kept so sweet and cool, 

All the boys' heads before they go to school, 

Their books, their clothes, their lessons and the ball 

That she has wound and covered for them, all. 

All is o'erseen — o'erseen, nay it is done. 

By these same Yankee wives; — if you have run 

Thus far without one, toward your setting sun, 

Lose no more time, my friend — go home and speak for one." 



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